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Sometimes—but “faithful” is not a single pass-or-fail quality. A screen adaptation may preserve a game’s characters, themes, visual identity, or emotional effect while changing its plot, pacing, viewpoint, and interactive structure. Another adaptation may use the same franchise universe for an entirely new story.
The useful question is therefore: faithful to what, and for what purpose? Comparing plot, characters, tone, world-building, and interactivity separately produces a fairer answer than asking whether a film or series is a scene-by-scene copy.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
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The Last of Us Part I – PlayStation 5 | $37.99 | Buy on Amazon |
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Sony Interactive Entertainment The Last of Us Part 1 Standard PlayStation 5 | $45.06 | Buy on Amazon |
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The Last of Us: Part I and Part II Scripts | $31.06 | Buy on Amazon |
What fidelity means in a game adaptation
A game and a film or television series deliver stories under different conditions. A player can explore, fail, choose a route, control a character and determine the pace. A screen audience receives a fixed sequence selected by writers, directors and editors. Moving a story between those forms inevitably changes some material.
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#1 Best Overall
- Enhanced visuals: Completely rebuilt from the ground up using Naughty Dog’s latest PS5 engine technology to improve every visual detail, The Last of Us experience has been faithfully enhanced with more realistic lighting and atmosphere, more intricate environments and creative reimaginings of familiar spaces.
- Fast loading: Initial loading times are near instant, and seamless after the first instance thanks to the PS5 console’s SSD – so you can pick up where you left off in the story and load specific encounters and chapters more quickly.
- Haptic feedback: DualSense wireless controller haptic feedback support for every weapon elevates combat encounters, and environments are brought to life through DualSense wireless controller haptic sensations of subtle falling rain, the crunch of stepping on snow and more.
- Adaptive triggers: All The Last of Us iconic weapons, including Joel’s revolver and Ellie’s bow, now deliver dynamic DualSense wireless controller trigger resistance and kickback on firing for deeper combat immersion.
- 3D Audio: Designed to make use of the PS5 console’s Tempest 3D AudioTech, Naughty Dog’s newly upgraded audio engine delivers richer soundscapes, bigger explosive moments and more visceral gameplay through compatible stereo headphones (analogue or USB) or TV speakers.
Plot and events
Does the adaptation retell the game’s central events, rearrange their order, omit them, or replace them with a new narrative? A close retelling can still compress missions or combine locations. A looser project may retain only a premise or a few recognizable incidents.
Characters and relationships
Check whether the protagonists retain their goals, conflicts and relationships. Screen writers may expand a minor character, merge several game characters, change a backstory or introduce a new viewpoint. Those changes can alter the route through the story without necessarily abandoning the source’s core characterization.
Tone and themes
An adaptation can change events yet preserve the source’s emotional register and central concerns. Questions about grief, survival, identity, power or family may remain intact even when the scenes used to express them are different. Conversely, reproducing famous plot beats can feel unfaithful if the humor, tension or moral perspective has been lost.
World and design
Settings, rules, creatures, costumes, architecture, sound and visual motifs create a game’s identity. A series may be faithful to that world and its imagery while telling an original story. World fidelity should be judged separately from whether a specific game campaign was retold.
Interactivity and point of view
Games let audiences act. Exploration, combat, resource management and the possibility of failure can communicate character and theme. A screen version cannot simply reproduce those mechanics. It must decide what the player’s agency represented and how to express that meaning through performance, editing, dialogue and viewpoint.
Declared purpose
Finally, compare the work with the purpose its creators describe. A close narrative adaptation should be assessed mainly on how it transfers the game’s story. A new story in the same universe should be assessed on continuity, tone and world-building rather than on whether it repeats the original campaign.
Three legitimate adaptation approaches
Projects that are all called “video game adaptations” can have very different goals. The following categories help prevent an original franchise story from being criticized for not being a retelling it never promised to provide.
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| Approach | What it does | How to judge fidelity | Example in the evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close narrative retelling | Transfers the game’s principal storyline to film or television, with medium-specific changes. | Compare major events, character arcs, themes and viewpoint; allow for compression and rearrangement. | The Last of Us television adaptation |
| Expanded or reframed retelling | Keeps important story material but adds scenes, develops side characters or fills gaps that the new medium can explore. | Ask whether additions support the original relationships and themes rather than merely counting changed scenes. | The creators’ description of The Last of Us emphasizes both carried-over material and new exploration. |
| Original story in an established universe | Uses a game franchise’s setting, imagery or continuity while telling a new plot. | Judge consistency with the franchise world and identity, not correspondence to one game’s sequence of events. | Netflix describes its Resident Evil series as an original story set in the franchise. |
Why changes are necessary when the medium changes
Interactivity becomes authored sequence
In a game, the player may spend hours exploring optional spaces, retrying a difficult encounter or choosing when to advance. A television episode must select a single rhythm and viewpoint. Removing a playable section is not automatically a betrayal; the important question is what that section contributed. If it built dread through vulnerability, a series might recreate that feeling with sustained performance and sound rather than a controllable encounter.
Gameplay systems do narrative work
Inventory limits, combat difficulty, navigation and failure can make a player feel scarcity or responsibility. Screen storytelling has to translate those effects into visible choices and consequences. A faithful adaptation may therefore preserve the pressure or ethical dilemma while changing the mechanism that delivered it.
Episodes need dramatic structure
Games can pause for optional dialogue, side quests and free exploration. Episodes and films need deliberate turning points, act breaks and climaxes. Scenes may be combined, moved earlier or omitted so that a season has a coherent progression for viewers who cannot control the pace.
Rank #2
- Flexible design
- High-quality material
- Durable
Sources differ in how much story they contain
The British Film Institute’s overview notes that games vary widely in narrative depth. A title with developed characters and a defined plot offers more material for direct adaptation than a game whose appeal rests mainly on mechanics, atmosphere or visual design. For the latter, “faithful” may reasonably mean preserving tone, rules and imagery rather than reproducing a nonexistent story sequence.
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The Last of Us is a useful example because the game has a developed plot and characters, and the television version was made with participation from co-creator Neil Druckmann. The adaptation follows the game’s central dramatic journey closely enough to be recognized as a retelling, but its creators describe substantial choices about what to remove and what to add.
PlayStation Productions explains the challenge this way: “When adapting The Last of Us to TV, the challenge was to find the perfect balance of what to leave out from the game, and what new things to add that couldn’t work in a video game, such as going deeper into side characters.” That statement describes a deliberate exchange, not an unchanged transfer.
The practical implications are clear. Material that functioned as playable traversal or combat can be shortened, while a relationship that the game communicated partly through the player’s actions can receive additional dialogue or scenes. Television also has room to follow characters away from the game’s playable viewpoint. Those additions may fill narrative gaps or make a supporting character’s motives legible to viewers who never held a controller.
Druckmann has described some parts of the series as extremely faithful and other parts as explorations that fill gaps. That is a creator’s assessment, not proof of universal audience agreement, but it shows why a single verdict is too blunt. The series can be faithful in its central relationship and themes while changing the distribution of scenes, the amount of time given to side characters and the way tension is created.
For a direct comparison, start with the game’s main sequence and note which events remain, which are condensed and which are newly dramatized. Then compare the emotional purpose of each change. A missing playable encounter may matter less than whether the adaptation preserves the source’s sense of vulnerability, moral uncertainty and attachment between its leads.
Resident Evil: when the franchise is the source
Netflix describes its Resident Evil series as an original story set in the franchise. That places it in the universe-based category rather than the direct-retelling category. Expecting it to reproduce one game’s campaign would apply the wrong test.
For an adaptation of this kind, examine the recognizable world: its threats, institutions, visual language, rules and recurring concerns. Ask whether the new plot behaves consistently within that framework and whether it creates the kind of tension or horror associated with the franchise. A new cast or timeline can still be compatible with the source world, while a familiar name alone cannot guarantee fidelity.
This distinction also helps explain disagreements among viewers. Someone seeking a recreation of a particular game may judge the series harshly even if it succeeds as an original story using established franchise elements. Both reactions can be understandable because they measure different dimensions.
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Fallout and the principle of respectful freedom
Industry discussion often places The Last of Us and Fallout in the same conversation because they illustrate different adaptation possibilities. The Royal Television Society quotes producer Bronagh Monahan advising, “Respect the source material but don’t treat it as gospel.” This is an attributed professional opinion, not a formal rule or a measurement of audience response.
Rank #3
The principle is useful when applied carefully. “Respect” can mean understanding why the original works: its tone, themes, world rules, character logic and relationship with the audience. “Don’t treat it as gospel” acknowledges that a screenplay or episode must make choices the game did not have to make. It does not give writers permission to change elements arbitrarily; changes should serve the new medium and remain intelligible in relation to the source.
Because the available industry commentary does not provide a complete scene-by-scene comparison of Fallout with its games, claims about exactly which plot elements it preserves or changes should be made cautiously. The stronger lesson is methodological: identify the adaptation’s stated aim before judging it.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.A practical method for judging any adaptation
Use this process when deciding whether a film or series is faithful to a particular game.
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- Define the source. Specify the game, installment or broader franchise being compared. Different entries may have different protagonists, timelines and themes.
- Identify the adaptation’s promise. Is it marketed or described as a retelling, a prequel, a sequel, or an original story in the same universe? Do not demand scene-for-scene correspondence from a project that has declared a different purpose.
- Map the main events. List the game’s central conflict, turning points and resolution. Mark each as retained, rearranged, condensed, expanded or replaced in the screen version.
- Compare character functions. Check goals, relationships, moral choices and development. Note when a minor game character is expanded or several roles are combined.
- Check themes and tone. Decide whether the adaptation preserves the emotional effect and central questions, not merely names and plot landmarks.
- Account for interactivity. Identify what the player used to do and what that action communicated. Then ask how the adaptation expresses the same idea through acting, cinematography, editing, sound or dialogue.
- Evaluate the world separately. Look at settings, rules, imagery and continuity even if the plot is new. A franchise can be world-faithful without being plot-faithful.
- State a qualified verdict. Say which dimensions are close and which depart. “Faithful to the characters and themes, but a loose plot adaptation” is more informative than “faithful” or “unfaithful.”
Common mistakes in fidelity debates
Treating every change as a failure
Omission can be necessary when a sequence exists mainly to provide gameplay, optional exploration or repeated challenge. The right question is whether the adaptation loses the narrative or emotional function of that material.
Counting references instead of examining meaning
A costume, location or famous line can reassure fans, but surface references do not prove that the adaptation understands the source. Character motivation, thematic emphasis and world rules are stronger evidence.
Confusing creator intent with audience consensus
Statements from PlayStation Productions, Neil Druckmann or other creators explain goals and decisions. They do not establish that every viewer agrees the result is faithful. Keep those claims attributed.
Using one game as a universal template
The Last of Us offers a substantial story to transfer. Other games may be primarily systemic, exploratory or atmospheric. The appropriate standard changes with the source’s own design.
Inventing a fidelity score
No authoritative statistic establishes what percentage of video game adaptations are faithful, and the available material does not support a universal ranking. Numerical scores can hide the fact that an adaptation may excel on one axis and diverge on another.
What the evidence can—and cannot—tell you
Official production accounts and creator interviews are valuable for explaining adaptation choices. The PlayStation discussion documents a balance between material to leave out and new television-specific material. PBS’s conversation with Craig Mazin addresses the different conditions of games and screen storytelling. The BFI provides context about the varying narrative resources of games, while the Royal Television Society offers industry perspective.
Those sources do not amount to a representative study of audience opinion, a complete catalogue of every adaptation or a quantitative measure of fidelity. A careful article or review should therefore distinguish documented production intent from personal judgment and avoid claiming a universal fan consensus.
The bottom line
Video game adaptations are sometimes faithful, but fidelity is multidimensional and medium-dependent. The Last of Us demonstrates how a close story adaptation can omit, expand and reframe material while preserving its central dramatic core. Resident Evil demonstrates a different model: a new story that draws on an established game universe. The most accurate verdict names the adaptation, identifies its purpose and specifies whether it succeeds with plot, characters, themes, world-building or the transformation of interactivity.
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